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Title: Mother charged with stabbing son and daughter to death
Source:
Daily Herald (suburban Chicago)
URL Source: http://dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=43161
Published: Apr 30, 2005
Author: Joseph Ryan and Kara Spak
Post Date: 2005-04-30 01:23:38 by Dakmar
Keywords: stabbing, daughter, charged
Views: 54
Comments: 2
The mother of two children stabbed hundreds of times in their Hoffman Estates home was charged today with two counts of first-degree murder, authorities said. Tonya Vasilev, 34, will be held without bond, following a court hearing this afternoon in Rolling Meadows. A defendant automatically is held without bond in murder cases in which there are two or more victims or in which any of the victims is younger than 12 years old. Vasilev, who appeared in Cook County court with a bandaged left hand, is scheduled to appear in court again on May 20. Hoffman Estate Police Lt. Rich Russo said there were signs both Christian, 9, and Gracie, 3, struggled with their killer. "It really doesn’t get much worse than this," Russo said. Vasilev was at home with the children Wednesday night when her husband and the children’s father, Nikolai, returned home to find the children stabbed, police said. Believing the offender was still in the house, the officers moved him into the front yard. There, officers began CPR and first aid but realized "he was past that," Russo said. Officers searching the house found Tonya and Gracie, who was dead, on the second floor. The mother was found with "minor" cuts on her hands, though investigators do not believe she tried to kill herself, Russo said. She was taken to the hospital and released after a short period of treatment. Tonya Vasilev is a native of North Carolina who studied at a Pentecostal college and taught Sunday school at the Bulgarian Church of God in Des Plaines where her husband served as pastor until last fall. Police believe she attacked the children shortly before her husband returned ome and called 911. That call came in at 9:20 p.m., police said. Another person who was living in the Vasilev returned to the house with Nikolai Wednesday night, police said. The roommate was questioned along with the parents, but is not considered a suspect. Authorities believe Tonya Vasilev killed Gracie before chasing Christian through the house as he attempted to hide, a source close to the investigation said. She caught up with him on the first floor where she attacked him, the same source said. The 36-year-old Nikolai Vasilev tried to revive Christian before calling 911, the source said. One law enforcement source said there were as many as 500 stab wounds and incisions on the two little bodies. A source at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office put the number at more than 100 on each child. Law enforcement sources said Tonya had been upset by the family’s move to a new church — a Bulgarian Evangelical church that Nikolai himself had founded. Those sources said she told investigators she killed the children to "save" them from abuse she feared they would suffer at the new church. What that potential abuse might have been is unclear. Russo declined to describe the scene inside the home, but he did say officers who got there first were offered counseling. Both parents spent Wednesday night and most of Thursday at the Hoffman Estates Police Department, being interviewed by Hoffman Estates police and Cook County prosecutors. Hoffman Estates police and investigators with the multi-jurisdictional Major Case Assistance Team continued Thursday to comb for clues in the home. Nikolai was released late Thursday afternoon, sources said. He could not be reached for comment. Thursday’s brutal scene on the quiet cul-de-sac stood in stark contrast to the friendly, churchgoing family that friends and neighbors said they knew. Rossen Spassov, a distant cousin of Nikolai who lives in Buffalo Grove, described Nikolai and Tonya as "great parents" who were always laughing and smiling and who took great joy in their children. That joy was sorely tested almost five years ago. In June 2000, their 3-month-old daughter, Gabrielle, died of carbon monoxide inhalation and burns after a fire in the family’s Elk Grove Village townhouse on Fox Run Drive. Tonya told police at that time she put the baby in a carrier on top of a clothes dryer because the machine’s repetitive noise soothed her, Elk Grove Village Police Deputy Chief Larry Hammar said. She left Gabrielle alone to check on Christian, then 4, and tried unsuccessfully to rescue the baby when she realized the laundry room was on fire, police said. Elk Grove residents who were neighbors of the Vasilevs in 2000 recalled Thursday how Tonya was sprawled out on the front lawn, sobbing inconsolably while firefighters were inside trying to save the baby. Elk Grove Village police and firefighters were unable to determine the fire’s cause and ultimately ruled out foul play. They reopened the death investigation Thursday, but they said they expected to be unable to reach a conclusion on the fire’s origin because there was no new evidence. Both parents were devastated at losing Gabrielle, Spassov said. Tonya, he said, cried for days. Which is why he can’t imagine either parent hurting their two remaining children. "Who is able to think that?" he said, looking down at his hands and struggling to find the right words. "Only police. But that’s their job. I couldn’t put that in my mind." "When you know people, it’s kind of hard to believe they can do stuff like this. I still don’t believe this." If there was recent trouble in the family, there were no outward signs of it, said Mike Meddaloni of Schaumburg, who knew the family because his mother lives nearby. A spokesman at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said Thursday they had no contact with the family before the children’s deaths. "They seemed like nice people, good Christian folks," Meddaloni said. "They never ignored you if you said ‘hello.’ They were always friendly when you rossed their path." Randy Thaxton, administrator of Schaumburg Christian School where Christian was a third-grader, said he would see either Nikolai or Tonya weekly when they picked their son up from school. Thaxton himself visited the family in 2000 when they were grieving the death of Gabrielle. Since then, however, he said he hadn’t seen any sign of unusual behavior. "I personally don’t know of any problems," Thaxton said. "I didn’t notice any difference in them from any other family." It’s hard to imagine what Nikolai Vasilev will do next, said Spassov, also a senior pastor at the Bulgarian Evangelical Church in Arlington Heights. In the Bulgarian culture, people do not discuss or think about the future until the dead are buried. But he hopes Nikolai and others grieving can find comfort in their faith. "I don’t know what kind of hope you can have after that," he said. "But we believe there is hope, that someday you’ll see your relatives again and all be together."
When police arrived at the house on the 1100 block of John Drive "the 9-year-old boy was found just inside the door," Russo said. 
Christian, left, and Gracie Vasilev
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#1. To: Brian S, christine, Zipporah (#0)
Sorry for duplicate article, I was experimenting with html and got carried away.
Any church or cult which emphasizes and elevates emotional outbursts and loss of rational, self-controlled behavior, is to be rejected, IMO. Christians are commanded to be in control at all times, keeping their emotions and impulses under subjection at all times. The Pentacostal "Holy Rollers" consistently allow things to get out of balance and control. There is something wrong when people come out of a church service, emotional basketcases. Then add the CCM and a rock n roll beat, and one has a Satanic cult with a Christian name.
#2. To: Dakmar (#0)
Tonya Vasilev is a native of North Carolina who studied at a Pentecostal college and taught Sunday school at the Bulgarian Church of God in Des Plaines where her husband served as pastor until last fall.
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